ABSTRACT
The Indian city as a masculinist space has been exemplified in urban planning’s neglect of the experiences, vulnerabilities and the specific needs of women. It would be a rare instance when women’s perspectives and experiences are actively sought and addressed by state development and planning agencies. Research from feminist planners has demonstrated that women are disproportionately disadvantaged in cities or spaces that are planned by men. The formal planning of Indian cities has been gender-neutral or even gender-insensitive even as regards explicitly gendered problems like the high rate of violence against women (VAW) in urban public spaces. The brutal gang rape and murder of a twenty-three-year old woman in a moving bus in Delhi in December 2012 shows the severity and the magnitude of women’s vulnerabilities in urban environments in India. However, women’s experiences of public spaces in Indian cities are compromised not only by threats to their safety; their access to space, mobility and livelihood is also often adversely affected by their status in society, determined by religion and culture, and restrictions on their freedom.
